Kaoru and the Animal Cake Stand
by Ume Tashira
Summary: When Honey is attracted to Haruhi's neighbor's animal cake stand, Kaoru thinks that the owner is stupid and stubborn. But after experiencing her wisdom, his opinion of her begins to change- drastically.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfiction for OHSHC so please; I would like criticism and telling of errors. That would be very helpful. And this story singles on animal cake a lot, so in case you don't know what that is, it is a little cake that is filled with custard or other flavors like strawberry, chocolate, or red bean (popular with the parents). Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter (and story) and make sure to review! :D

Chapter 1

"Tama-chan! Animal cake! Animal cake!"

Honey frantically jumps up and down, pointing at an animal cake stand.

A young lady is making animal cakes and serving her customers, telling them the different flavors that she produces. She is cheap. 75 cents for one, and no tax.

"Oh, that's Ringo-chan. She lives in the apartment next to mine. Sometimes, she comes over and gives us taiyakis for being good neighbors," Haruhi tells the Host Club.

"We should buy some before it's too late," Honey says. "It's almost dark."

Tamaki nods. "Yes! Let us go!"

Why act like fools when the stand is 5 feet away? Haruhi thinks to herself.

"Sorry, but I'm sold out. Y'all should've come earlier! I saw you guys standing there for 7 minutes, talking!"

Ringo purses her lips. She brushes a strand of auburn gold hair out of face as she cleans up her pots and pans.

"Would you make them if I fed them to you?" Tamaki cradles her face in his hand.

Under thirty seconds, Tamaki is pinned against the wall with a bronze dagger at his throat. "No, I most certainly would NOT."

Ringo grits her teeth together and puts her dagger back in its scabbard.

"I know you." Honey points a finger at Ringo. "You're the leader of the Greek Fighting-Style Club at Lobelia Academy, aren't you?"

Ringo pats Honey on the head. "Yes, I am. Thank you for taking notice of that. And I believe that young man with the black hair is your cousin, Mori."

Honey grins and smiles.

"Satschima Ringo, daughter of a famous patisserie. She decided to live by herself due to her not being able to have freedoms. She goes to the Lobelia Ladies Academy, where she is a personal chef and patissiere for the Zuka Club. Ringo is a talented seamstress and she fights Ancient Greek Style. She is also a very good dancer, but hasn't ever shown it to anybody for some reason." Kyouya finshes up. Slamming his book shut, Ringo smiles slyly and says, "You forgot to mention that I'm a friend of Renge's."

At this point, Tamaki is at his knees. "No way! How do you know her, Honey?"

He shrugs, "Well, it's a long story…"

"_I was watching Chika-chan in a hole through his door one day. I had noticed that he hadn't even glared at me once that day, and I decided to figure out what was wrong. _

_When I peeked in, his room was dark and Chika-chan was pulling petals off a flower. I had seen him look through the window of the Greek fighting-style club and I knew that there was only one girl in that room- Satschima Ringo."_

"In other words, Chika-chan is in love with Ringo." Kyouya acknowledges this fact, so he writes it down in his memo.

Ringo rolls her eyes. "Anyways, if you guys want animal cake, I'll treat you guys to some back at my apartment."

Honey nods furiously.

"Oh, and those twins- so silent. We'll fix that when we get home."

As Ringo shows the way to her apartment, Kaoru whispers to Hikaru, "What do you think she meant by that?"

Hikaru shrugs. "I don't know, but I'm waiting to find out."

I hope you guys enjoyed this- and don't forget to review! ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for all of the new reviews- I appreciate. And so the tale of this eventful day continues…

Chapter 2

"Here we are!" Ringo flicks on lights as she goes through the house. "Now, you guys can sit over there in the living room, and I'll go get the animal cake ready."

She winks at the twins as she passes, and they can feel the lightest blush creep over them.

However, Tamaki sees the gestures and crawls over. "Hikaru, Kaoru, what is your relationship with Ringo?"

They shrug and look away. But Tamaki keeps pestering them.

"Senpai, please sit down. This is Ringo's apartment. She can kick you out of here, so be a gentleman and quietly sit." Haruhi reason with an even tone. Tamaki is reluctant, but shuts up and scrunches into a ball in the corner.

"La, la, la." Everyone listens to Ringo's singing, which is _way_ better than any of Haruhi's lip-synching. Kaoru listens the most carefully. It's not every day you see a girl who sells animal cake and sings like a goddess, he thinks to himself. Wait. Where did 'sings like a goddess' come from? That's insane. And a weird choice of words.

"I'd go back to December all the time," Ringo finishes her song as she sets down a try of fresh, sweet, animal cakes. Honey begins to dig in.

Ringo faces the twins. She looks down at a cup of Lemon Honey Tea. There are 4 square ice cubes and a thing, red straw. She takes a sip. Then she walks up to Hikaru.

"I don't know if you're Hikaru or Kaoru, but take a sip."

"How do you know our names?"

"That doesn't matter. Now do what I asked."

"Fine." Hikaru bites onto the straw and takes a sip. "Bleh. Sour."

Ringo smiles. She takes another sip. Then she offers it to Kaoru, who thinks it is sour too. Ringo gestures for Hikaru to drink again from the cup. He does so, and when he finishes, his eye widen. "How come the first time was sour, and then it became sweet?" He asks.

"It's because when everyone shares something, it makes the world sweeter. I may or may not be able to tell who is who, but isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't everyone be happy just the way they are, and accept it? I think that both of you are absolutely beautiful. So that's why people shouldn't be silent, in the shadows. They should be willing to take their chances on everyone, every day." Ringo doesn't smile. She quietly exits the room. The twins hear a door close softly.

"Hey! Honey-senpai!" Haruhi snatches away the last 5 (Honey was eating unbelievably slow due to Ringo's speech) animal cakes. "Save some for Hikaru and Kaoru. They haven't ate any yet." Haruhi gives the plate to Kaoru and site back down. Hikaru follows her example. But Kaoru just stands there, half dazed. He stutters when he finally speaks. "I-uh- I-I'll go check on Ringo."

Everyone looks up, but Kaoru is already gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Kaoru? Kaoru?"

Kaoru turned his head to face his brother. He'd done it again- turned his head towards the right to face the big doors, hoping that _she_ would come.

Kaoru absolutely positively knew that she wouldn't. For one thing- she was a Lobelia girl, someone that the Host Club didn't need to deal with. And why would she visit the Host Club anyway even if she was at Ouran High? She was probably busy tending to the Zuka Club. No way would she EVER come.

Still, he couldn't help thinking about it. "What?"

Hikaru gestured towards the chess board in between them. "It's your turn," he said quietly, as to not disturb Kaoru's thoughts.

Kaoru stared down at the board; the pieces look a bit fuzzy. He couldn't concentrate at all. After looking down at them for about 5 minutes, he sighed and flicked his king. "I surrender." Then, without noticing, he turned his head again towards the right.

Hikaru smiled slyly and teased, "Thinking about her again?"

The ever lightest pink crawled over Kaoru's face. "Does it matter to you?"

His older brother couldn't help it, he laughed. This was crazy! His usually calm little brother was going crazy over a girl! It was probably impossible. Hikaru was the insane one, the one that wanted Haruhi for himself. But now...now Kaoru was trying very hard not to be so insane over a particular someone. Ringo.

Brushing tears from his eyes, Hikaru's laughing abruptly stopped when they heard someone lean against the 3rd Music Room's door.

"Oh... oh man! You people are getting good! We... We fought all the way to... oh." The voice faltered, and immediately the Host Club knew who it was.

Ringo's POV

Oh my gosh... In and out Ringo, in and out. I breathed heavily, panting from the long period of fighting with my fellow club members. I had wasted about 1 spike, 15 arrows, snapped my bow in half, dropped my crossbow while leaping over Ouran High's pond where Haruhi had 'dropped' her books, and now I didn't know where my hair band was. I wiped some sweat away from my brow bone.

"Oh... oh man!" I clutched my stomach as my fellow friends put their daggers, swords, and arrows back to where they belonged- in their scabbards or behind their backs. They laughed lowly as they watched me slide down on to the floor and squat there. "You guys are getting good! We... actually... actually fought all the way to... oh." I looked up and felt my face immediately sag. We were at Ouran High, no doubt, I didn't mind that part- what I DID mind was that I was sitting in front of the Third Music Room.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ringo's POV

Ew. No no no no way. This is _so_ not cool. I hate this! Why am I here anyways? Something is _not_ right. I should not be here. I cannot be here. But I guess since I'm here anyways, I might as well get on with it and maybe drop in and have a bit of conversation with Haruhi.

I shoo away the rest of my club members, and I can tell that they are pretty happy to go. I remember that in the beginning of this year, some of their parents told me that their kids weren't allowed to go anywhere near Ouran High, much less fight into it. I should've noticed that some of the club kids were gone. They were probably innocently waiting patiently for us at the gate entrance. I wonder how come I hadn't picked up the scenery earlier. We passed an iron gate, a pond, for heaven sakes- I bet we even passed about three limos! What is up with me?

I take a deep breath and open the big doors to the third music room.

Nothing happens. Hmph! I wonder what happened to their so called, 'formal entrance for all ladies policy'. I'm pretty sure that the night on which they came over, they described it something as, with a beautiful, elegant welcome with a spur of rose petals?

Whatever. "Come back during club hours. You're about 3 hours early." A voice I recognize as the twins' pops out of nowhere. That's when I see him. Sitting on a desk, his legs hanging. It's Kaoru. Before I know it, a small smile is on my face. I scan the room for Haruhi. I don't see her anywhere. "Haruhi's not here. She's in the other room changing," Tamaki tells me. He gives me a grin full of white, bright teeth and I grin back at him. He seems like a pretty easy-going guy- I'm not sure why Haruhi doesn't like him very much. It's strange. I can easily picture Tamaki in a pair of sweats with a t-shirt jogging on the school track. He seems very nice. I like him. Not in the gross way, but in the way that everyone likes the sun. We just like them.

"Did anything happen to her?" I hope that she didn't get hurt. How come all of a sudden she's been hurt much more often than when she was at her old school? I've known her ever since we were little girls and she didn't really get that many bruises or whatever. But she's seems happy here, so I guess that's what counts, right? And the people that she's friends with.

Kaoru stares at me blanky (which I find rather disturbing, but enough with that), but Honey is really the one that answers. "She got wet. Apparently, she was watering the garden with the hose and she got her uniform wet. She hasn't told us how yet, but I bet that Tamaki is going to try and pull out the information from her as soon as she finishes changing." He hugs his little Usa-chan and then hugs himself. Mori looks down at him and I get the feeling that even though I barely even know the Host Club, they're really a great bunch and that they have wonderful connections with each other even though they are all so so so so different.

I welcome myself to a random chair and sit in it. There's nothing on the small coffee table except for a small round vase and a rose inside. I wonder if it is going to die. That's what's always happened to the flowers that I had put in vases and plucked in my room. They always died. I didn't know why. All my other friends said that they could do it, so why couldn't I? I guess I just didn't have the talent to deal with flowers. "Does Haruhi have to change into a girl's Ouran High uniform? I'm pretty sure that she's really uncomfortable in it, even though that she would never admit it. That girl never admits anything." I'm shaking my head from side to side, smiling in disbelief. Haruhi was always a strange girl. It would take years to uncover the real her.

Kyoya answers my question this time. I hadn't noticed him before. I don't know why, but I always forget to count him as a Host Club member. He seems more like the guy that is the superintendent or something. I've never seen him flirt with a girl, but there was the one day where Haruhi went to the beach, and since Ranka was busy with work, I had to pick her up from school... she had looked really busted and annoyed. I didn't ask her what happened though. It's none of my business of what she does and doesn't want to talk about. "Unless you'd like to pay for a spare?"

I grumble at him. This guy is so annoying sometimes. "Yeah, right. You're so charming and handsome and rich. Why don't you pay for it?"

It was just a careless thought, but Kyoya freezes for about one second and then redesigns his face again. He doesn't reply. Boy, am I beast, I congratulate myself silently. At last, I hear a door open and out comes Haruhi, in a yellow bell dress with white collars over the ends of the sleeves and at the neck area. I cringe at the horrible ugly Ouran girls uniform. I'm thinking that Lobelia uniforms are way more comfortable. After all, I'm wearing one right now, and I feel like I'm wearing soft silk. Lobelia sure is high class sometimes.

Haruhi smiles at me, trying to hide her surprise. She plops down carelessly next to Tamaki, notices where she is, and scoots away, a smug look on her face. I know why she's doing it, but why does she move away? I know that Tamaki is crazy, but still, he seems so... cheerful. Though maybe learning to do a bit of work would do him good. I'm not trying to say that he's perfect, duh! He isn't. It's just a cover. I hate covers.

Tamaki= about to blow up because Haruhi looks 'so cute'. I swear, I've been thinking the weirdest equations ever since the past last few days, but this one is the craziest. I think that I can just sense other people's feelings sometimes. But I guess that's what Tamaki is feeling. His face is all red and he's quietly scooting over towards Haruhi.

"Tamaki. Control yourself," I tell him in a 'as a matter of fact' tone of voice. If no one is going to train him to be a_ real_ gentleman, _I'm _going to have to do it myself. Sometimes, I think that my little acts really help people, even if I might sound a bit bossy. I've heard that word over and over again these days, bossy bossy bossy. But I think that it helps people, even if I'm the only one that thinks that way.

"So, Haruhi-" Tamaki starts but is interrupted by three, short raps on the doors. I widen my eyes, since I know who it is. "It's them," I mouth towards Kyoya, who has looked up from his computer. He pinches the bridge of his nose, but Tamaki announces, "It seems that we have visitors. Well, no point in being rude, men, open the doors."

Too bad Tamaki! There _**is**_a point in being rude to the visitors.

After all, it's the Zuka Club.


End file.
